[StBernard] Am Library Association

[Westley Annis]

Maybe they could help with the St. Bernard parish library... from WWL TV:
 

Library Journal, American Library Assn fixing two N.O. libraries


05:24 PM CST on Saturday, March 11, 2006

By The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS - The American Library Association and two library service
companies will renovate a historic branch of the New Orleans Public Library
during the ALA meeting in June, when another branch - restored by Library
Journal - is scheduled to reopen. 

 
Hurricane Katrina damaged the main library and all 12 branches in the
perennially underfunded system. Only the main library and four branches,
including one to be renovated by the ALA, are open. 
 
They are open for only five hours a day, partly because city budget cuts
forced it to lay off all but 19 of its 216 employees. Recently, 21 have been
rehired. 
Library Journal and Minneapolis architect Jeffrey Scherer are fixing the
Alvar Street branch in the Bywater area near the Ninth Ward. The small
building is still standing, but had to be gutted. The library's entire
collection and all of its furniture and computers were destroyed. 
 
"The building is structurally sound. It needs rewiring. It needs a lot of
work but it's structurally sound," Journal editor-in-chief Francine Fialkoff
said Friday. "The other reason we chose it is because it's in an area that
is coming back, that is stable. People are living there and it is serving a
number of neighborhoods." 
She said the jour nal has gotten messages from about 20 vendors in and out
of the library community, offering books, furniture and other materials. 
 
The ALA's project is at an Uptown branch built in 1908 thanks to a grant
from business tycoon Andrew Carnegie. 
 
The Children's Resource Center on Napoleon Avenue suffered relatively little
damage from the storm: two shattered plate-glass windows and missing
shingles let in rain. Hundreds of books either were lost to flooded homes
and refugee residents, or had to be thrown out because of mold that grew
during the month that nobody could get to the library. 
 
Highsmith, Inc., and Bretford, Inc., which sell school and library
furniture, equipment and supplies, are working with the ALA. They chose CRC
for several reasons, said Highsmith merchandising director Margaret
Sullivan. 
 
"First, we believe that working together as a group we can refurbish it over
the long weekend and leave the city of New Orleans a gift from all of us.
The library also serves two nearby schools, as well as the local
neighborhood, so it benefits children in many ways, which was extremely
appealing to us at Highsmith," she said. 
The library still has 21,000 to 23,000 books. The renovation will increase
the collection up to 33 percent, increase the young adult area, improve the
flow of the building and brighten the interior. 
 
The ALA, which has had recent attendance of 10,000 to 13,000, was the first
major convention to announce that it would keep its meeting at New Orleans'
convention center after Hurricane Katrina. 
 
ALA conference attendees from across the country will provide volunteer
labor. The New Orleans Public Library Foundation is raising money to fix the
exterior, an d is using both projects to kick off a fundraising drive. 
___
New Orleans Public Library: http://www.nutrias.org <http://www.nutrias.org/>
ALA: http://www.ala.org <http://www.ala.org/> Library Journal:
http://www.libraryjournal.com <http://www.libraryjournal.com/>  

Jim